ever ever after
by Lossie
Summary: Of forced marriages, not so secret relationships, Uchiha's stubbornness and about life in general. Chapter fic. Ita/Saku with bits of Kaka/OC, Naru/Hina.


**A/N**: Hey guys! It's my second story written in English (I'm _not_ a native, so be understanding, pretty please!) and a sequel to the first one (to "sexy and she knows it" with Kakashi's POV – a short story about the beginning of Kakashi and Hana's relationship). Anyway "Ever Ever After" is set in Naruto Non-massacre verse and I made a lot of changes regarding canon – for example I made Uchiha Madara a good guy and Naruto a Rokudaime Hokage at the age of nineteen.  
If you've any questions, feel free to ask. I'll try my best to answer them in the end of following chapter or via PM.  
I'm also searching for good experienced beta reader. Any volunteers?  
Now enjoy! REVIEWS ARE LOVE!

**Title**: Ever Ever After  
**Author**: Lossie (the awesome me!)  
**Pairings**: Itachi/Sakura, Kakashi/Hana, Naruto/Hinata  
**Summary**: Of forced marriages, not so secret relationships, Uchiha's stubbornness and about life in general. Chapter fic. Ita/Saku with bits of Kaka/OC, Naru/Hina.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto, but Uchiha Hana and the plot are both mine. And just so you know, I can be _very_ protective.

* * *

**Chapter 1: In which the cat's out of the bag**

"You don't even know..."

Blow.

"How much..."

Blow.

"I hate..."

Blow.

"Their GUTS!"

_Crack_.

Yet another tree had fallen to the ground and Hana looked up from her medical scroll at her soon-to-be sister-in-law and a dear friend of hers for over fifteen years with pity in her black, soft eyes. The poor girl was red in the face, her jade eyes promising bodily harm if anyone tried to approach or – Kami forbid! – talk to her right now. Truth be told she had a good enough reason to be this way, but Hana wasn't sure if destroying Uchiha's private training grounds by cracking every tree in sight was going to help her. Well, she was sure as hell it was going to piss off her father, but cancelling marriage was out of question even if Sakura suddenly decided to raze all compound to the ground and go around killing random people.

"I know, Sakura, I know...," she said tiredly.

She so desperately wanted to do something to help her best and only female friend and her own fairly innocent older brother – Sakura believed that it was his entire fault in the first place and Hana was really worried about his well-being – but she just didn't have the power to do so. The Elders had had enough of Itachi's behaviour. He was dodging the subject of marriage for far too long and Sakura was no better within her own clan, but it was mainly her brother's fault that they were in this situation.

Enough was enough, but Hana just couldn't find it in herself to blame him.

Itachi was always a caring and loving older brother. He has often taken care of her and Sasuke, when they were kids, playing with them or telling funny bedtime stories. When they started their own ninja training, he was always at their side helping them master more difficult jutsus and techniques, but as much as she loved him, she was well aware of his social awkwardness. He was, to put it simply, a bit socially retarded and had a problem interacting with people in general, his closest family being an only exception.

Apparently done with the act of total destruction, Sakura flopped down beside her, breathing hard and looking worst to wear than an hour ago, when Hana had to practically chase her around the village in vain hope it'll calm her enraged friend down a little.

Hana had known about this whole mess a few days before it was officially announced, but was forced to remain silent. It pained her to keep this secret, something so important to Sakura, but at the same time she knew about her brother's need for a wife and if she was forced to choose between normally sweet and lovable Sakura and the other candidates - the other horny, ugly or desperate candidates, may she add... Well, her decision was quite obvious. She was lucky Sakura was too mad at Haruno's and Uchiha's clan Elders to be mad at her. Even better, Hana was pretty sure that Sakura was not all that much angry, _because_ she was going to marry Itachi, but because she was _forced _to do it.

"I just don't get it..," Sakura said bitterly. "Mom and dad were always telling me that I'll be able to choose and to fall in love on my own terms. They _promised _me this. And now... I just..."

She sighed, hiding her face in her gloved hands.

"I know that feeling." Sakura looked at her through her fingers. "Not from my own experience, I admit it, but Itachi is not really happy about it too... Well that's what Kakashi told me anyway..." She shrugged.

"Oh, I'm _sure_ he's not happy... Not happy _at all._" Sakura's voice was full of sarcasm.

Hana rolled her eyes.

"You're overreacting."

"I'm not!"

"You are."

"No!"

"_Yes_, you _are_," she said as calmly as she could muster. "You never talked to him before and only saw him on occasions, but I know him and Kakashi is his best friend. He's a different guy then the others you met and I mean it. I'll tell you something now and I want you to listen to me very carefully." Sakura nodded once and Hana took a deep breath, preparing for this monologue mentally. "First of all, you should know that he never wanted to force anybody to marry him and he didn't choose you to be his bride. It's the Elders' doing, not his. I'm not even sure he wants to marry anyone at all... Secondly when he had been a boy, there was a war going on as you know, so he was forced to fight and train very hard, when he was barely six years old. Later he was so strong and already showed so much potential that my father and the Elders pushed him to his limits... I think he never had time to play with other kids his age or bond with someone properly. Kakashi and Shisui were just there, so he confides in them and I and Sasuke are his siblings, so... Well, anyway I just want you to know that he's not what he seems to be. Please, just try to not make it harder for him than it already is. He's as much of a victim as you are. Feeling either angry or sorry for yourself is not going to help anyone, least of all you."

Sakura felt silent after Hana's speech. She seemed deeply in thought, so Hana returned to reading, deciding to give her some time to think in through, but she couldn't concentrate. Her mind was set on her secret dinner date with Kakashi a day before.

They were discussing going public with their relationship, her boyfriend of two months feed up with hiding in shadows and having no opportunity to claim her as his own to shoo her admires away. Hana was not really sure, if it was the best of ideas, but when Kakashi set his mind on something it was hard to knock any sort of sense into this stubborn head of his.

Acceptance was not a problem with Sakura and mom, because the first one was okay with it (she figured it out after only two dates!) and the other want some grandbabies as fast as she could get them, but her father and brothers were a different story altogether. As much as they love Kakashi (because Uchiha's loved everything that was powerful), they were not going to like this whole dating thing. Not because of the age difference or some crap like that. When it came to dates, they were going all berserk, because Hana knew deep down that if they had any saying in it, she would be able to start dating at the age of forty. She knew that it was how they expressed their love, but sometimes she wishes they loved her a little less or could just tell her "We love you" in some other, not so love-life-devastating way.

Finally Sakura came to her senses, making Hana focus her attention on the topic at hand.

"I'm sorry," the Haruno girl whispered, smiling lightly. "About earlier and this..." She waved her hand in the general direction of the fallen trees and cracked earth.

"Well, otou-san is going to be mad and will probably throw a fit, the big baby he is, but he'll survive. It's not as if we're not doing the same thing nearly every other day."

"Ugh, and to think that before receiving the _thrilling news _from Naruto, of all people, I was in a good mood..." Sakura sighed. Anger was still evident on her face and in her posture. Hana suspected that it was not going to disappear any time soon, but at least she's on the way to accept it all.

"Wanna hear about my dinner with certain someone?" The mischievous smile on one of the infamous Uchiha twins' face was a bit terrifying, but it made Sakura curious and the sudden change of topic was surely a welcomed thing. "So we were in his apartment this time and he cooked!"

Sakura blinked. One time. Two times. Three times. Then her mouth fell open.

"He did _what_?"

"I know, right?" Hana smiled dreamily. "And it was pretty good. Nothing burned this time!"

"_This time_? Are you hiding something from me, Uchiha?" Sakura asked while moving her eyebrows suggestively.

Hana blushed a bright shade of pink.

"Maybe."

"Oh Kami-sama, Kaka-sensei is _cooking _for you and you're not telling me this? I'm your friend or what?" She made a show looking offended and hurt, but the corners of her lips were twitching slightly as if she was trying (and failing) to suppress a smile.

"You are! But it just never occurred to me that you would be interest!"

"You're so dense sometimes..." The pink-haired kunoichi shook her head in disbelieve. "Anyway it's _so _cute! I never pictured him as a romantic kind of guy. More of a pervert, really..."

There was an awkward silence, followed closely by: "Well... Err... Because he kind of... sort of... is both?"

Hana was sure her face was as red from embarrassment as the tomatoes her twin loves so much.

"Did you do... _you know what_?"

"What? No, of course not! We're obligated to save our virginity till marriage!"

"And by 'we' you mean...?"

It was pretty obvious that Sakura was interest and Hana couldn't really blame her. She was going to be Itachi's wife soon and the wedding night would just be more uncomfortable for them both, if she didn't know.

"Me and my brothers?" She said weakly, hoping above anything else that her friend was not going to laugh right now, because the whole conversation was embarrassing enough. Well, that much for her hope, because a moment later the girl was rolling on the ground clutching her stomach, tears of mirth in her eyes.

"Very. Funny."

The Uchiha wanted to kill her friend right now. With a fire jutsu no less. And to watch her burn.

"S-sorry, but it's just so... So... Hilarious!" And she started to laugh even harder, if that was humanly possible. Ten minutes passed until Sakura was able to talk like a normal person again and Hana's left eyebrow was twitching, making it quite obvious that the Uchiha was beyond annoyed.

"Sorry once again. It's just hard to believe. Especially considering that your brothers are so popular with girls and... Well...Um..." She blushed lightly, eyeing the ground nervously. "Well, they _are _very handsome too."

"Oh, you think that my brothers are handsome... And which one you like better?"

Oh, the sweet joy of teasing! The soon-to-be Uchiha was so red in the face, she could put all of the tomatoes in the Fire Country to shame. This was a well-known fact that in their genin and Academy days, Sakura was in love with Sasuke – or more likely obsessed about him – and was now ashamed of her behaviour back then.

"Can we change a topic, please?" Sakura practically begged with puppy-dog eyes. Hana was a sucker for these and everyone knew about it.

"Whatever." She laughed, when Sakura's face lighten up. "So what should we talk about instead?"

"Well, we should probably head home, because Mikoto-san is going to eat us alive if we're late for lunch." She pointed at the sky and the sun above their heads. It was well past noon.

"Oh Kami-sama! I totally forgot about it!" Hana jumped from the ground and was already heading home, when Sakura got up. "And oka-san is going to kill _me_, not _us_."

"Probably," the Haruno girl agreed, trying to catch up with her raven-haired friend. "And as for our conversation topic... I wanted to ask why exactly you and Kaka-sensei are still in hiding."

The look Hana send her over her shoulder was telling more than a thousand words.

"Have you, by any chance, ever _met _my father, my brothers or any of my cousins, really? They're all a bunch of overprotective bastards! I can't tell them! And believe me, I tried and it didn't go well..."

After her first date with Kakashi she brought up the subject of dating during the dinner the following day. Her dear and lovely brothers and her even more lovable father were emitting the aura so deadly, she was instantly convinced to never ever talk about it again. The only person happy about it was her mother, but she adored babies and wanted to be a grandmother above anything else, so her opinion was a bit invalid.

"Right. I forgot."

"Clearly." Hana sighed heavily. "Sometimes I think only Madara-ojii-san is truly on my side without throwing some personal business into it..."

And it was true. She was her great grandfather's precious little princess and he was going out of his way to make sure she was happy. Grandpa Madara was a weird old man and people in general were rather afraid of him, because of his unpredictable nature, but in reality he's a bit misunderstood very old widower with a big family of hot-blooded men and women to handle. And, to Hana's relentless amusement, he was not really found of them all. He was also the only Uchiha male not trying to make Hana an old maid with a bunch of cats.

"Well, he's always on your side. I mean sometimes it looks like he hates other Uchiha's guts, especially your brother's." Both of them knew she meant Sasuke, who in Uchiha Madara's opinion was 'a disgrace to the family name, because of his training with the snake-face'. "Which remind me I wanted to ask you where your worse half is? I didn't see him in weeks!"

"Oh fuck!"

Hana's face went white and then a little purple.

"What?" Sakura asked, clearly confused.

"He was on mission with his genins for the last three weeks! I totally forgot about it!" The only Uchiha girl in their generation was in the panic mode right now.

"So what?"

"So what? _So what_? Sakura, do you know, what that means?"

"Err... No?"

"He doesn't know!"

"About what?"

"About your engagement, you baka!"

"Oh fuck..."

This was Haruno's turn to pale.

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly... Oka-san probably forgot about it too and hadn't sent a message to warn him. She's too busy with the wedding preparations to remember her own name sometimes! And Naruto is not better with those stacks of overdue reports in his office and all the Hokage stuff... Damn, I should have thought about it myself! And he's coming home and will probably be eating dinner with us today... Shit, shit, shit!"

Both females looked at each other with the same level of horror in their eyes. It was as clear as a day that Itachi was not going to get away with it.

"You know what?" Sakura said after a moment of silence, a sudden smile blossoming on her face. "We should gather Kaka-sensei and your brothers on one of the training grounds and let them _talk _to each other in this fancy and very manly way of talking. That way they can harm themselves as much as they want and be even."

"If it was only that simple..." Hana sighed as a response a minute later, also smiling lightly, when both girls entered the Uchiha household.


End file.
